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Sunday, October 12, 2008

That damned Straw Costume

On the weekend after John McCain was booed by his own supporters for simply saying that Barack Obama was a "decent person" that they did not have to be "scared" of, I'm in absolutely no mood to be lectured by Mallard about how Liberals and Democrats are the racists in this election.

The fact that it comes in the form of one of the most preposterous Straw Man arguments ever to appear in Mallard Fillmore in no way mitigates my feelings.

11 comments:

MToje
said...

Because "That one" is used to show equality. Because "Kill him!" and "Traitor!" means that one is considerate of others. Because shouting "Hussein" in a furious frenzy shows that yours is the party of tolerance, after all. "Palling around with terrorists" is just an expression to say that the candidate's platform is less than ideal.

The Republican base is waking up to the fact that they are very likely to lose this election, and are reverting to the mode in which they operated during the Clinton years. They seriously thought that, post-blowjob, they had a lock on the government forever. They can't believe that it's coming to an end. They don't see any of the disastrous consequences of the last eight years, and blame everything on the mainstream media. The ugliness you are seeing at McCain rallies now is the Right warming up for the next four years.

Of course, being three weeks behind the curve, Mallard hasn't reached that point yet. Tinsley hasn't seen the polls that show Obama winning by 100 electoral votes. It's going to be interesting to see if he can keep Mallard Fillmore from becoming a bitter, violent strip, one that no newspaper will want to print.

Wasn't this the guy doing those horrible, racist strips about Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton? "Haha, it's funny because the only thing black people are good at is complaining. Also all feminists are ugly trolls."

To show that I think he represents the terrifying possibility of a another 4 or 8 years of destructive Republican policies!…

… But wait! What if some McCain supporter see me and realize that I’m an Obama supporter making fun of their candidate?…

… They might get angry and call me an un-American terrorist baby-killing taxing and spending secret Muslim! They might try to take the mask off me or even try to hurt me!

Mallard: Calm down, Mr. Noseworthy! I’m sure none of McCain’s supporters would ever raise their voices or lay a hand on you. You’d be perfectly safe even in the middle of the big McCain-Palin rally they’re having in town tonight!

Mr. Noseworthy: That’s not a bad idea! I mean, how wrong could I go following Mallard’s advice?

mtoje: "Palling around with terrorists" is just an expression to say that the candidate's platform is less than ideal.

You have it exactly right. Back when I used to discuss politics with college buddies, they would accuse me of wanting to "surrender to AlQaeda" and then act all puzzled when I said they were accusing me of treason.

It's a mistake to try reasoning with them; they aren't thinking with the big head so you have to hit them in the little head. That's why mocking Tinsley is so much more effective than debunking him.

Mallard Fillmore is so utterly lacking in subtlety, insight, or humor I only glance it occasionally with the same sort of morbid curiousity that compels one to stare at a train wreck. It's an AWFUL strip.

However, even a broken clock is correct twice a day. There is a lot of awkwardness among many whites on the left when it comes to race; irrational 'white guilt', politically correct pandering, gratuitous accusations of racism, etc. This is almost certainly the one area where the right wing's kneejerked criticisms tend unfortunately to have an uncomfortable bit of inconvenient truth about them.